When Persis is beating up the guards to get into CS-12, the first punch she throws is an uppercut that actually lifts the guy off the floor and flips him completely 360 degrees. A punch like that would almost certainly kill you. At the very least, it would shatter your jaw. Yet this guy stands up within seconds and comes back at her again!

It was nice of Archer to tell Soong that Enterprise was going to initiate the station's self destruct sequence. It gave the Augments that extra few vital seconds to shut the thing down and foil his plan. Always good to see somebody show such consideration to their enemies that way.

Great Moment :

The torture scene. Not that I'm into torture, but I love the way this was played out. Soong was so clearly not liking what was going on, but willing to go through with it anyway; Malik just itching to kill anybody who got in his way; Lucas just desperate to hold out despite the horrors going on around him. It's a highly effective scene that ratchets up the tension brilliantly.

Body Count :

A doctor on CS-12 is murdered by Malik. Archer says the Augments have killed "over 25 people" so far - this would mostly be the crew of the Bird of Prey killed in the previous episode. In fact if we took "over 25" to mean 26, then since one person had been killed in this episode so far we would have a number of 25 for the crew of a Bird of Prey. Smike is subsequently murdered by Malik as well.

Factoid :

Soong took 19 embryos from cold station 12. With Smike left on the planet, that means there were 18 who left on the Bird of Prey - and 17 left once Malik killed Raakin.

At some point, Phlox spent a few months working at Cold Station 12.

A 47! When Soong tries to get into Cold Station 12, the screen comes up with "Initiate Protocol 047".

This is the first episode in which we see Dr. Lucas, who has several times been mentioned as Phlox's pen pal.

The diseases listed on Malik's screen as being stored on CS-12 have all been referenced in previous Trek episodes :

Xenopolycythemia - McCoy had this in TOS : "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky"Synthococcus Novae Type A - Sevrin had this in TOS : "The Way to Eden"Rigelian Fever - Flint had this in TOS : "Requiem for Methuselah"Rigelian fever (gram positive) - presumably some sort of variant of the standard disease which Flint hadTellurian Plague - mentioned in TNG: "A Matter of Time"Anchilles Fever - the Enterprise-D was seeking a vaccine for this dreaded disease in TNG : "Code of Honor"Andronesian Encephalitis - an Enterprise-D crewmember had this in TNG : "The Dauphin"

Archer's father died when he was 12.

The BoP has a small hangar between its nacelles.

Plotline

Enterprise continues to search for the Augments, now led by Soong. Fearing that they will raid Cold Station 12 to recover the remaining augmented embryos, Archer hurries to intercept - but finds himself too late to prevent them from boarding the station. Soon the Augments have escaped again, this time with the embryos and hundreds of kilos of deadly biological weapons.

Analysis

This is one of Enterprise's better efforts. The plot hangs together well, with everybody behaving in a way that is consistent with their character and logical. I especially like the character of Persis; she knows that she's no match for the men physically, so she's consistently used her brain and, uh, other attributes to get and keep power - and it consistently worked!

I would like to have seen the issue of Earth's reaction to the Augments gone into a little more deeply. For instance, Archer tells Smike that the Augments are not going to be punished by being put in jail. Okay... but what would happen to them? Assume that Archer was able to capture them all alive. Presumably the Augments on the Bird of Prey would be handed over to the Klingons for the murder of the Bird of Prey crew, which is a death sentence in itself given the Klingon justice system. But even if they stayed on Earth... would they really have just been freed to mix in with the general population? It's hard to imagine that that would be allowed, but on the other hand just how severe are Earth's laws against genetic engineering? We know from Bashir and others that even two hundred plus years after this, augments can't serve in Starfleet, and that even minor character 'defects' like promiscuity are enough to get an augment locked up forever. Would Earth lock people up just for being augmented, let them roam free, or come up with a half-way solution like some form of monitored probation? I'd like to have seen the episode go into ideas like this a little more.